Flowers and Gemstones(Discontinuedbeing Rewritten)
by Nightshade Silvermoon
Summary: ((Due to losing my notebook this story is no longer being written. It might be rewritten at a later date in the future.))
1. Prologue

The office was full of the sound of clicking from keyboards that just barely worked, the whir of fans from way out dated computers, and the shattering of hearts. Nightshade was used to these daily noises along with the wretched stench of what seemed like something dead. She wouldn't be surprised if the person two cubicles in front of hers was dead. She always knew the horrible feeling of something dead in the area. But no one seemed to care. Nightshade sighed, her fingers pausing from their dreadful dance against a crooked keyboard with keys missing. According to many she was the best worker in the entire establishment, which was truly shocking considering the fact she hated this place. She was certain that such a feverish hate should have shown in her work. But looking around at the astounding stupidity around her the shock didn't last long. This was especially sad considering Nightshade had only recently turned 18 and many of these people had college degrees.

The only reason she wasn't going to get a degree was because she didn't need one for what she wanted to do with her life, not to mention she didn't know where else to go. Nightshade couldn't suppress a cringe at such a thought. She was going nowhere in life. No matter how many times it was whispered that she was going to get a promotion and she could go far in this company, she didn't want to. Working at Joja was the same as going nowhere in life; Satan wouldn't send people to this hell for crying out loud!

She glanced at the clock and realized she had been paused for less than a minute. Already however she could feel the glares of the people observing from their high up little windows. The judgment was thick and heavy like a winter coat in the middle of summer. She could taste the hate they felt for all the little people working in their little cells. Nightshade was just one of those little people; however her natural affinity for order and leading had made her just a little bit more noticeable than the rest. Yoba knew she didn't want to end up as one of those people, staring down at another human being like it was a product in and of itself was not befitting of the sweet natured girl. Night didn't even look down on animals like this.

Her deep blue eyes skirted around the same way they did every day around this time, trying desperately searching for some kind of escape. Anything to get her away from Joja Corp, the judging glares, the mind numbing work, and Yoba forbid the days she had to work the phones! Nightshade was patient but she couldn't stand the mindless blather of those on the Joja customer service help lines. Luckily most people didn't really mess with her in the office though. Despite the kindness that showed constantly in those crystal like azure orbs she made it a point to shadow them with her dark black hair and make a threatening face at anyone who tried to speak to her. It wouldn't take a genius to realize that glare wasn't all too threatening, but the people at Joja's bottom were sheeple and tried to be good little livestock. Night sighed, she wanted friends and man was she desperate for affection, but not yet that desperate.

She could hear yelling on the other side of the room which meant someone else had gotten in trouble and it was time to get back to work. But then once more she came to a complete stop, her eyes falling onto a barely touched drawer of her desk. She kept the last gift from her grandfather in that drawer, a letter of some kind she had yet to open. Her grandfather had been a powerful man with the same pitch colored hair and midnight blue eyes that Night had. Night had always been her grandfather's favorite, though he loved her little sister Marigold just as well Night was a mirror. Funny, considering her last name was Mirrorwood. When her mother was young and getting married she had been the only child of Night's grandfather, leaving her to refuse to let go of her maiden name. Her father, who had plenty of siblings and no distinct love for the "Rain" name, had been all for taking hers. Night had always knew the distinction held some importance and linked her all the closer to her mother's half of the family and her mysterious grandmother that grandpa would never tell her about.

Night let her mind wander away to the day she got the letter. At some point she had pulled it from the drawer and held it in her hands like a precious life line despite knowing nothing of its contents.

 _Her grandfather sat in the large bed breathing lightly. The old man still looked like a bull with a broad chest, strong shoulders, and a confident and powerful smile that spoke of many battles won through the tough years of farming. Sitting proudly in certain parts of the room were various decorations the old man liked to keep around. A battle axe in the corner he claimed he never used, the mark of Yoba on the wall, a small and strange marshmallow like creature craved from beautiful green gemstone atop the mantle. This was the first and last that, to her knowledge, she would get to visit Stardew Valley, the land where her grandfather thrived and her mother grew up. Her sister had already gotten her gifts and almost everything else was left in the will to her parents. Nightshade had no clue what her grandfather could give to her, though she knew she was not forgotten as when her family had left the old man to sleep for the night her grandfather had told her to stay._

 _He laughed lightly as Nightshade approached his side cautiously. "Ah sweet child, you look so confused. Don't worry dear, Grandpa hasn't forgotten about you. After all you get the most important gift of all," he said holding up a letter. "Now, now, don't open it yet. Have a little patience my girl," he interjected before Nightshade could start tearing into it. "That gift isn't one for right now. It's more special than that. In the future I know that one day you'll start to become crushed by society. Life will start to get you down and you'll feel like you're starting down an endless abyss with no light in sight. I know this because I felt that way once a long time ago. What I have enclosed in that letter honestly saved my life. One day it will save yours. How do I know? Because my dear, you are a Mirrorwood! And this is who we are! Now let your grandpa sleep," the old man said with a hearty laugh._

 _Nightshade and her parents have been staying with him for a little over a month now after his body finally gave up on him and he couldn't stay on his farm alone. Only her mother ever went into town and Night only saw the other children once or twice. She'd however seen quite a few of the adults in that short time. That night was the last time Night saw her beloved grandpa. But there wasn't any reason to shed tears. Night knew it was coming long before her parents, she always knew when someone was going to die. But beyond that she also knew that no matter what happened her grandfather was always there, guiding and protecting her._

"Grandpa," she said with a bitter sweet smile as she opened the letter and read its contents. There was the gift that had long ago saved the life of her grandfather and today was going to save hers. The will to Mirrorwood Farm. "Even now, you've still got my back you crazy old man," she muttered as she swiped a hand across her eyes. She didn't cry back then, she wasn't going to start crying now. Now was a time to be grateful, joyful even.

Nightshade stood up, she could hear the upset yells of her supervisors almost instantly, but she just walked towards the door holding only that letter close to her heart. She could live without everything else, after all everything important was still in her parents' house. But she clung to the letter and will for dear life, feeling a burst of fear and excitement. Only a completely insane person would drop everything they ever knew, especially a stable life, to go and live out on some random farm in a town they only visited once when they were five a month before their grandfather died. Good thing Night was just that kind of insane.

"Nightshade, where are you going?" One of her superiors shouted out.

Night didn't open her mouth. She turned around and did nothing more than put on a massive blinding smile on and hold up her middle finger before backing out of the door and slamming it.


	2. A Fresh Start

_Spring 1_ _st_ _Year 1_

Night breathed in deeply as the cool country air flooded into the bus window. The bus had left the desert a time ago and she could see the town known as Pelican Town. Refugee. She wondered if anyone still remembered her grandfather. She was 5 when he died and being 18 \ meant there was a pretty large 13 year gap of him being gone. Then again, considering Mayor Lewis was still alive and her mother still had a couple friends in the town, there might be some who remembered.

Hopefully that would help her make friends easier. She could feel a little ball of nervousness start to build in her stomach as the bus slowly rolled to a stop. Just as it did, there was a loud pop from something she really hoped wasn't the motor. The bus driver, she believed Pam was his name, gave a loud yell and jumped out to see what was wrong.

Looked like Night was going to be stuck in this town for a while. No turning back, as if she even could. The day she decided to pack up and leave, she sold everything in her house that she could pawn off or was sent to her parents or sister. She ditched her apartment even though she still had a couple months left on it and brought only the clothes on her now and a small back pack. Emphasis on small. She was gonna need to buy a new one as soon as she possibly could. The thoughts of money made Night shiver.

Lucky for her the world of Stardew Valley worked fairly different than the world outside. Four seasons made a single year, while 4 years in Stardew Valley made up a single year in the outside world. Things grew faster here except for the people who more often than not were blessed with a strange kind of longevity.

Night could proudly say her grandfather had been at least 100 in outside world years by the time he died. She could only begin to imagine how long that was in Stardew time. This strange clock made Stardew Valley fairly valuable to those who knew how to work with the land. The pace that crops could grow and the quick changes of the seasons allowed for a very large market of selling. Unfortunately for the Cursed One's, the land was very picky and those who hurt the earth quickly lost any use for land they possessed until someone who was kind enough came along.

That was actually how her grandfather had originally come across Mirrorwood Farm. Some Joja Corp goon was trying to use the land but couldn't get it to work so he sold the place to the first person willing to pay. Her grandpa had just so happened to be one of those people the land responded to fairly well and before anyone could blink there were crops as far as the eye could see. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of shape the old place was in now after so many years of neglect.

"Ah, hello there," a kind voice said as Night jumped off the bus. The man standing before her looked to be old, with a very gray mustache and a brown hat to adorn his head. Night couldn't suppress her curiosity, wondering instantly if maybe his hair wasn't all quite there anymore. Further inspection proved the old man to be roughly the same height as Night, with brown overalls and suspenders. The green button up shirt and yellow tie completed the look. Night couldn't help but return his kind, warm smile. "You must Alder's granddaughter, correct?"

"Yep, that was my grandpa alright," she responded with a brilliant smile. "And let me tell you, am I ever glad to be here." She took a deep breath, stretching out till her back popped.

"You look so much like him. If I didn't know better I might have mistaken you for his daughter instead of granddaughter. But you have the small kind of spark that your mother had the last time I saw her. I'm sure you'll fit in just fine, you'll make a lot of friends," Lewis said with a jolly sort of laugh. "Now you really should see the farm. I've already had a couple people in town check the house over for anything that might have made it a home over the years. So you should be safe. The farm I can't say for certain."

Night nodded quietly. It was to be completely expected, how could a farm go unused for so long and not have little creatures living on it? "Don't worry about it man, whatever comes I'll handle it. I came out here for a change of pace, to feel close to plants and people again. As if a little rat, snake, or poisonous spider is going to scare me! …Okay maybe the last might, but that's just because I hate spiders in general and try to avoid them under all circumstance… But you get my point!" She said reassuringly. She was eventually able to pull a small smile and laugh from the worried mayor.

"Alright. Everything has already been taken care of so if you need anything, I'm in town. The first place you might want to stop by is Pierre's. That's the general store where you can buy seeds and produce for your own dinner while you get on your feet. Tools are already in your house, which has a bathroom, living room, kitchen, and guess room. However, because it was in such bad shape, we had to ask Robin the local carpenter to fix some things so I'm sorry to tell you but you might already be in a touch of debt," Lewis said with a sheepish smile.

Night sighed and shrugged. "Nothing I haven't faced before, a little elbow grease and whole lot of crops should have that handled in no time," the black haired girl said, ever the optimist. Even when they got to the farm her smile didn't waver. "Alright… more hard work than I initially thought but it still can still be worse, right?"

Lewis gave her a hearty slap on the back and a good luck before going his own way. She tossed her head back and sighed heavily before looking out at the 'farm'. Forest was more like it at the current moment. Luckily Stardew Valley was different from normal places and she had a much better chance of cleaning this up fast. It would take a year, but a much different kind of year than the outside world. The girl decided not to worry about the farm quite yet and instead went into the house. Just as promised there was a group of cheap but workable tools sitting out for her. "Sickle, hoe, axe, and pickaxe," she said with a happy smile. Her mother had told her a couple things about this town and she knew at some point she was going to have to get her hands on both a fishing pole and a sword but that would come after she could actually get her feet on the ground and a small amount of work done in order to keep herself alive.

The house itself was a pretty good house, but frankly, it was a total mess. There was just dust everywhere and everything was just so, icky. "A fixer upper aren't we," she muttered to no one in particular. "But the house can wait. The first thing I need to do is start getting an income, meaning it's time to hit up the store," she said, putting her bright smile back on.

She had no prior knowledge other than the fact that Pierre's and that one place were the only places she could shop in the area. And considering her hate for that one place, it would be Pierre's she would be going to. Even though Joja had cheaper seeds she didn't need to invoke the Land of Sin's attention. Or give them any of her hard earned cash.

She started her walk to town which lasted shorter than she would of thought. The farm was a good ways off of town with the only thing in between being the bus stop. But Night just kept following the beat dirt road and eventually it turned into the cobblestones of a very old and beautiful town. Most people her age dreamed of big cities with lots of people, but such a small town was breath taking to Night. Each house was beautifully and carefully built to withstand the troubles of country life, the old and rustic made Night feel happy and even a little safe feeling.

She saw what had to be the general store with people walking in and out with groceries. She walked over happily excited to meet new people, when suddenly the door swung wide open and someone slammed right into her. The ground met her before she knew what was going on and when she looked back up she could have sworn an angel was standing over her. The girl she had run into had long purple hair which perfectly matched her porcelain like skin. Her eyes which flitted between blue and green with the light showed a touch of worry and whole lot of regret. The girl wore a long purple vestish thing with a black shirt underneath and a black choker adorned her neck.

Night swallowed hard knowing in the back of her mind all reason was long gone at this point. "Damn," she whispered under her breath, luckily this new person didn't hear her.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. Are you okay?" The purple haired girl asked, holding a hand out. In a daze Night took it and was pulled to her feet.

"Fine," she said biting the inside of her cheek and shaking herself out of her daze. Night brushed off her little mess quickly as it faded away to the back of her mind just as fast. Night was sure she wouldn't even remember it in a week. Love wasn't that easy for her. "Hi there, I'm a new farmer. My name is Nightshade but I prefer Night, it's a pleasure to meet you," she quickly said composing herself and playing off the little accident with style.

"Are you sure? Your nose is bleeding!" the girl gasped as Night felt a trail of warm liquid start to come from her nose.

"Crap," she hissed holding a cloth to her nose. Night tended to accidently hurt herself enough that this rag was pretty much light brown from not always being able to get the bloodstains out. "Don't worry; I'm used to a little blood. A little too used to it than I should be, but that doesn't really matter. Your name was..?" She said trying her best to clean up the situation.

"Abigail," the purple haired girl said cringing. "Wait? You're the new farmer? So that was today huh. You aren't exactly what I was expecting," Abigail said looking Night up and down. Night almost felt like she was getting sized up.

"What were you expecting? Someone older? Male? Uglier? Wait, that last one isn't possible," Night said laughing slightly trying to make a joke of the situation. She pulled the rag away and pressed a clean spot against her nose to see if it was still bleeding. Lucky for her it wasn't.

"Hey! Don't talk like that," Abigail chastised. "Anyway you were coming into the general store here right? What did you need, I might be able to lend you a hand."

"Well being a brand new farmer, all I've got tools but no seeds to yet work with. Also I was hoping that I could spend today meeting some of the other townspeople," Night said in reply hoping that would be enough to explain.

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Here. I'll see if I can get my dad to give you a couple free parsnip seeds for the nearly broken nose," Abigail said blushing furiously from the past embarrassment.

"No worries. Wait, you're the daughter of the general store owner? That's pretty cool," Night said with a gentle smile. She had no intention to hold any kind of grudge and she wanted to make sure that Abigail understood that. Abigail smiled slightly in return seeming to finally relax a little.

"Oh? And this wouldn't be the new farmer would she?" a man behind the counter asked. He wore a kind smile and his soft brown eyes shown happily behind a pair of glasses. Night was tempted to say that the shade of brown his hair was matched that of what seemed to be a pretty nice looking jacket covering a blue shirt that was most likely some kind of dress shirt. He seemed to be a kind and worrying professional kind of man. The kind Night would have no problem getting along with.

"That's me," Night said with a kind smile having no intention of bring up what happened with Abigail. But apparently the purple haired woman did.

"Can we give her some free parsnip seeds or something? I kind of bashed her nose with the door on my way out," Abigail said evoking a gasp from the man who judging by the name of the store was Pierre.

"Oh my goodness. I am so sorry, I'm sure Abigail didn't mean it, please don-"

"Really she already said sorry enough times when it happened, I'm perfectly fine. I little blood loss and a sore nose won't keep me down. See, it didn't even break. Just a little nose bleed," Night said tapping a finger to her slightly sore nose. "Now, seeds?" She asked pulling out the small purse like thing where she kept her money.

"Oh no, no. Abigail is right. Here are 15 parsnip seeds free of charge. It's only right after all," Pierre said.

"But I feel so bad just taking free seeds for an accident," Night said nervously trying to rationalize it in her head.

"Nonsense. Tell you what, you can pay me back for this first batch of seeds for growing a nice big and healthy batch of parsnips for me to sell at the store," he said with a wink.

"Deal, all fresh produce goes to you!"

"Good girl, money that stays in Stardew Valley is money I have no problem spending. Now I know when it does come times for you to buy seeds mine are a little more expensive than Joja but-" Pierre started but once again was cut off by Night.

"Speak not that name for it is one laced with the evils and corruption of murder and defilation of our earth. I don't care how much cheaper they might be selling things, I'd rather pay the money than step foot into the Cursed Lands of the blue roof," Night said. Maybe it was a little over dramatic but it was exactly how she felt about that terrible and wretched little place.

Pierre smiled brightly and laughed like it was the best joke he'd heard in years. "You and me, we're gonna get along farmer. Hope you stick around."

"I hope I do too. Now anyway, I've got to get around to seeing the rest of the people in town and making some new friends. I'll see you around Pierre, Abigail," she said and both waved at her and she happily bolted out the door. Luckily she didn't run into anyone like Abigail had.

There were so few people walking the streets. Lewis had told her that there could only be about 28 people in town in all, but that was still a daunting number considering she had only knocked two off of her list. She had better get started on making some more introductions. That was when she saw a group of three women talking together. One was a pretty looking woman with green hair tied into pigtails, from what Night could tell she had very similar eyes to Abigail in regards to Night not quite being able to place if they were green or blue, though with this woman they at least seemed to be far more green. So she ended up making the call that they were green.

The second woman looked to have brown hair cascading over her shoulder in a braid with purplish eyes. The last was a red head with green eyes who seemed like the kind of mom who would be really cool. The trio when Night ran up ended up introducing themselves as Caroline, Jodi, and Robin respectively.

"Oh, you're the person I owe. Lewis didn't ever tell me how much. So how much am I in the hole?" Night asked trying to get everything sorted out before she did anything potentially stupid.

Robin smiled kindly before saying, "Don't worry about it sweet heart. Just bring me a harvest of peaches next summer, okay?"

"Deal!" Night said with a giant grin. Things hadn't been all too fun when she started the day and found out how much she was going to end up having to do. But this was quickly becoming real great with a waved debt and some free seeds to get her started.

"So if you're Alder's granddaughter then that must you're Holly's daughter aren't you?" Caroline asked curiously.

"Yep. Holly is my mother's name alright. Why?" Night said looking to the green haired woman.

"Holly used to be my best friend when we were kids! You know what; you and Abby should be friends. That would just be so cute," Caroline said happily holding her hands together and smiling.

"Hey Caroline! Holly wasn't just you're friend. If you're going to already start pushing Night here to be friends with Abigail she has to be friends with Sebby and Sam since Holly was friends we me and Kent as kids," Robin shot at the now blushing green haired woman. Jodi was completely left out of the conversation but she seemed amused enough standing next to Night and laughing.

"But I have _best_ friend rights," Caroline complained and Robin just shook her head, tsking the woman.

"And this is why you and I weren't friends. Greedy Caroline, so greedy," Robin teased. Night just smirked watching the situation.

"If I meet either of them I'll make sure to says hi, but I'm only gonna be able to become friends with people who want to be friends with me. Besides that little road block I would honestly love to make friends with everyone in town," Night told the pair in a chipper voice and got a trio of smiles in return who quickly shooed her off to make friends with the rest of the town. "If things go that easy with the rest of town this shouldn't be hard at all," Night said with a happy sigh.

It wasn't much longer before someone else called her over from what looked to be the saloon. "You're the new farmer right?" A plump man with brown eyes and hair called to her as she trotted over. He looked to be a happy enough man with a curly mustache and the worst clothes she could possible imagine. Was that a yellow jacket, with blue marks, and a blue undershirt? Oh god, it took all her power not to start to giggle in the slightest. Why were so many people in this town dressed so silly?

"That's right," she said trying to hide her giggles as a friendly smile. After all this man already seemed so nice like everyone else in town, she really didn't want to upset anyone by being rude.

"The name's Gus! I own this here saloon. Feel free to come and stop by any time. Friday is when everyone in town meets up here to drink and socialize so that'll be your best chance to meet everyone in town. But for now you can still swing on by and meet who you can, maybe grab some food and drink," he said.

"I appreciate the offer. I'll definitely have to take you up on the meal idea until I start getting my feet on the ground. As for drinking I don't really do alcohol…" she trialed off with a sheepish smile. Alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, drugs of any kind, all of it was not for Night. She was always scared of her judgement being impaired or altered against her will so she tried her best to avoid anything that could do that. As for smoking she just thought it wasn't very attractive. A lot of people in her old office used to do things like smoke or drink and she knew the man behind her even did drugs. There were pills all over his desk for crying out loud. And she hated seeing what those kinds of things did.

As for drinking specifically she had a fear of it. Lots of reasons she'd care not to divulge. "Eh, don't worry about it. Why don't you come in and enjoy yourself for now and we can have a little chat till some more people show up?" He asked with a grin.

Night chatted with Gus until it started to get and more people filtered in. Night had taken up a spot in what seemed to be a game room and was having a near literal fight with a game called Journey of the Prairie King. The thing was a retro piece of crap shoot em up, but Night was a video game veteran and refused to let some stupid video game beat her! She didn't know if this town knew much about modern day videogames, though she had to think no considering how old this game was. Then again bars and food joints usually had really old arcade games. Why wouldn't they, it wasn't like a bar could just buy and xbox… though she felt there had to be some bar out there that had tried it.

She let out a full on battle cry as she finally downed the boss of the second level. "This game is hell!" She hissed still not ready to give up. But the game decided she was because it glitched and she ended up dying. "Ugh!" She half growled and half screamed

"Touch luck, that's further than Abigail can ever get," a man who had at some point magically appeared behind Night said. He was holding a pool stick and standing by the pool table. Another man was standing with him.

The first who had spoken had black emo hair. He had the one side of his face covered by his black hair thing. Black hoody and his dark purple eyes just made it look so natural. He almost didn't seem like one of those typical pouty emo kids as much as a normal person who was supposed to be this way. The second man had golden super sayan rocker hair that Night wasn't sure at all how to feel about. She sniffed the air to see if she could catch a whiff of the entire bottle of hair gel he had to of used.

"My name is Sebastian, and this is Sam. You're the new farmer right? Abigail told me she accidently bashed your nose. You don't seem any worse off though," the black haired boy who was apparently Sebastian said once more.

"Well, yeah. I guess she did. Though I say bashed is a little strong a word. The name is Nightshade, but Night works," Night said with a nervous laugh slamming the game with her fist one more time rather viciously to try and get it to unfreeze. It unfortunately didn't work.

"Well new girl, it seems we'll get along pretty well. Hope to see you around pretty lady!" The one who Night assumed to be Sam said with a carefree and childish sort of smile. Night shook her head at the last comment and walked away. It was getting rather late and she had things to plant in the morning. "Well I better head out, later," she said with a small wave to everyone she had met that day.

The walk home was quiet, peaceful, and pretty uneventful. The only things of real interest were strange sounds she could hear all the way back and eeriness of something seeming to follow her.

When she finally got home she flopped down onto her bed with a long and heavy sigh. "Today was a good day," she said with a blissful sigh before falling away into the darkness of deep and healing sleep.


	3. Strange Things

_Spring 3_ _rd_ _Year 1_

The second day of Night's life in Stardew Valley had been completely devoted to trying to clear out debris from the land and get some room for the crops. Now that the third day had come she had found herself constantly running back and forth between Pierre's, taking notes on seeds and the room she had on the farm. She had even sketched out what it should look like when she finally got everything up and running. At one point Abigail had offered to help but Night declined. She wanted to do this with her own two hands. Night was certain there would come days in the future when she needed the help of others, but that day wasn't yet upon her.

In all honesty, Night had yet to come upon her limits when it came to working. Sure she was tired and hot, but she still felt like she could keep going a while longer if she needed too.

"Hey there farmer!" a voice called out from behind her, and a glance over her shoulder revealed the owner to be Abigail. "Working hard I see. I swung by to see if you wanted to take a break. You don't wanna push yourself too hard do you?"

"Sure, I guess a couple minutes won't do this place or me any harm," Night said, her cheeks a shade of rosy pink from sun exposure and exhaustion. "What'cha got there?" She asked after running over and seeing that Abigail was holding a bag of some kind.

"Well I was thinking that if I was gonna pull you away from work and all I might as well feed you. After all, you don't seem like you have too much after just moving here. Are you gonna be okay like this? Waiting till the first harvest and all? I know it only takes about 4 days for Parsnips to come up in Stardew Valley but they still don't pay that much and you need to replant them and all so…" Abigail looked almost worried as she talked. "You seem like a really good person. I really want you to stay. So I'm kinda hoping that you don't keel over from hunger and over exertion."

"Abigail that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me, but you don't have any reason to worry about me. It takes a lot more than a couple days without food to kill someone like me. However I will never turn down free food," Night said her eyes glittering with a kind of happiness.

"So since I am feeding you, you wanna play a little game? It's called question and answer," she said with a devilish grin.

"I don't like that look but sure," Night said, watching the purple haired girl pull out some sandwiches and some soda. "I'll tell you anything you wanna know."

"Blunt aren't we? Alright first question, first question. I heard you met Sam and Seb last night, what did you think of them?"

"Cute but totally need to be together," Night said as she nodded her head like a wise old man. "Why are they not a thing yet?"

Abigail burst into laughter. "Oh my gosh. I've been telling them that for years but neither one wants to admit how gay they are for each other. I told them that it was obvious but they don't believe me. I'm sure they'll get a crack out of this. Alright second question, how do you feel about videogames?"

"Videogames were literally my only life line before I came out here. I worked at the horrible soul sucking company known as Joja corp, and as such I suffered day in and day out for a measly pay check most of which went to my family. What didn't go to my family I used to buy videogames. I didn't really work as much as I should of. The high ups liked me because I was diligent and good at organizing and ordering people around. They most likely would have given me a promotion if I'd stayed. Heck, if I had given it a couple years I could have been one of the executives without even getting my college degree. But I was miserable beyond compare. I wanted my life back. So for a good year I hid and protected myself behind playing videogames day in and day out whenever I had the free time." The tone of the conversation had quite quickly become somber.

"Why don't we move on to a happier question," Abigail said with a bitter sweet smile. Night hoped she didn't regret asking or maybe think bad things of her now. "Why don't you tell me about your family?"

Night instantly lit up at the prospect. "Alright! My mom's name is Holly. She actually grew up around here before she left the day she turned sixteen. My dad is really big and strong and looks like what would happen if you enlarged typical rpg dwarfs. Stocky man with a bushy blond mustache and beard. Now that I think about it he might look more like a Viking… nah, a dwarf. But for some reason he's really tall. I look like my grandfather while my little sister looks a lot like my dad, her name is Marigold. We don't share a last name because both of my parents wanted someone to carry on their last name. I was a Mirrorwood like mom; Marigold was a Rain like dad. But neither of us ever minded."

"That sounds nice," Abigail said. There was a bit of longing and maybe a touch of envy to her voice.

"I know you're supposed to be asking me questions but I'd like to ask you one. What's your relationship with your parents like?"

Abigail went completely silent, casting her eyes downwards and shaking her head slightly. "Not very good. I get in fights with my dad a lot but my mom always seems to have my back. I know both of them always want what's good for me, but they just try and push me into being something I'm not. I honestly really want to join the adventure's guild and become a great fighter and explore the world, but my parents want me to end up as just some house wife," she said the last line with a bit of a pout and a scowl.

"Have you ever wanted a husband?" Night asked meaning the question to ask what Abigail's sexuality was.

"I don't know. I mean sometimes I think I do and sometimes I think that maybe… I haven't told my parents this yet or anyone for that matter, so please don't breathe a word of this. I think I might be bicurious," Abigail said slightly bracing herself for instant rejection and hatred.

Night just shrugged. "Be what you want to be. If you think you might love women, love a woman. If you think you might love men, love a man. I've never been one to judge. Personally I'm Demisexual…or at least I think I am. Never been close enough to someone to actually tell yet, but my saying is love and be loved."

"Demi? I'm sorry but what does that exactly mean?" Abigail said with a look of confusion.

"It means I only become sexually attracted to someone after I'm emotionally attracted to them. Meaning someone has to have a really close relationship to me before I can actually find them to be 'attractive'. It's kind of strange and at times annoying, even to me, but it's who I am. At least I hope so. No one's ever gotten close enough to me to actually be able to tell so I might just be asexual and not even know it. But hey, what does it actually matter if I am or not. The point is you be you and screw what other people think if they can't support who you are," Night said finishing it off with a smile.

"Yeah. Thanks Night! I've really gotta run since my parents usually want me home by this time, but I'll make sure to stop by again," Abigail said with an unreadable emotion in her eyes. Night would have been worried she scared the girl off if it wasn't for the massive, confident, happy smile she was wearing. Night smiled back and gave a little wave before heading inside. It was only really about 3 in the afternoon but she was tired and wanted a bit of a longer break. Abigail was nice and sweet. Kinda adorable. Considering Night's sexuality, it would be a lie to say she was already into the other girl, but Abigail certainly had higher chances so far than any other person Night had met. But that was a far off and distant future and Night had doubts Abigail would even be into someone like her.

There was the sound of scuttling inside her room and she looked around. "I thought this place was clean of rats," she muttered to herself before sitting on her bed. She didn't really have much stuff yet so there wasn't honestly anything to do till her parents got her letter and sent over some of her things. She was kinda starting to regret leaving her laptop at her apartment. Even if it was a really slow piece of junk she still had a ton of games from her steam account downloaded on there, and there was no amount of money she wouldn't waste right now to get at them. "Wonder if the saloon is open. That one arcade game might be a good waste of time. I still wanna beat it," she mused out loud quietly.

That was when something fell onto her head. It didn't hurt but it was moving. So she let out the most girlish scream she had in years and jumped to her feet shaking her head violently. Of course it wasn't a rat. She honestly would have been fine if her mind thought rat. But her mind just had to jump to giant spider and throw her into a frenzy of trying to shake it up.

She was surprised when what fell to the ground was a small little marshmallow looking puffy thing in the color blue. "Hello?" she asked curiously when it got up and started to make a series of cooing noises and what not. She started to get a little frightened when more started to appear. "Okay. Bye," she said darting out her front door before any of them had the idea to attack her. None of them looked especially deadly but neither did rats.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye the flag of her mail box sticking up. "But that mail… already delivered… what is going on today?" Upon opening the mailbox she found a golden gilded letter with strange font she could barely read.

 _I can help you deal with your "rat problem". You know where to find me._

That was all it read. And for the strangest reason in the world Night knew exactly what to do and where she was going. The letter was right; she did know where to find the sender. Her eyes flitted over to the wizard tower with both curiosity and caution.

(-)(-)(-)(-)

The frustrating part in getting there wasn't really the fact that it was so far away. It wasn't even the fact there were a ton of sticker bushes and dangerous plants on the way and Night was now covered in small cuts. It was that the tower somehow found a way to frustrate Night. It was up a massive staircase on a hill stand like a proud and majestic jerk and she hated it. "Wizard, what the hell," she muttered to herself with a growl. Finally pulling herself all the way to the top of the stairs she slammed on the door multiple times. "Wizard person!" She yelled out.

"It's open," a voice replied so Night turned the door handle and opened it. She looked around and found it to be the typical wizard's tower. The place had a dark and eerie sort of atmosphere with bad lighting and lots of strange books and ingredients littering the wall shelves. The wizard sitting at the center of the room behind a large, green bubbling cauldron completed the effect well. But the only thing that it accomplished was put Night more on edge.

"Who are you?" Night asked quietly.

"I am Rasmodius-" he started and looked like he was going to start listing off titles of some kind so Night, with all the uncharacteristic impatience and spite, stopped him.

"Okay that's peachy dandy but why in the heck am I here?" Night asked bluntly, narrowing her eyes slightly at the green potion and what not. She was slowly backing towards the door, not necessarily feeling safe in how creepy and strange all of this was. The door however decided that she was going to stay because it slammed shut before she could leave, obviously through influence of the wizard.

"And here I was thinking it wasn't possible to be more insufferable than Holly. But you are her daughter are you not? It makes sense you wouldn't like me. Considering just what you are your kind tends to not like mine," the wizard said pulling a couple of bottles off the shelves and tossing some ingredients into the cauldron. "Tell me child, have you yet to learn who your grandmother was? Or did your parents keep that hidden from you?"

"My grandmother? What I am? What does this have to do with anything?" She asked glancing around at her surroundings. The only escape seemed to be a window 10 or 20 feet above her. Was a fall like that deadly? She was sure she could use the shelves to get up there.

"You aren't completely human," he said simply letting it sink in. Night just blinked a couple of times.

"Excuse me? What is the heck is that supposed to mean," she said in more of an accusation than a question.

"Just simmer down and let me explain. There are creatures in this world known as Spirits. One of these creatures, a Nature Spirit, lives in the secret forest near the outside of my tower. I myself have never met her but she comes to many farmers. It seems she took a liking to your grandfather and in the process you have become one of her descendants just as your mother was her daughter you are her granddaughter. I'm sure if you continue to farm and work your hardest it will become apparent to you as well as you'll be eventually able to get to and speak to her," the wizard said simply continuing to mix his brew. "However because the amount of time you've spent distant from nature that part of your blood has become dormant. Of course it could be woken up by continuing to farm as your ability to see the Junimo kicked in not long after working. But that's unpredictable and could take years. So I've come up with a better solution. Drink up," he said pouring some of his cauldron into a cup.

Night winced at the disgusting scent alone. The taste was going to be obviously unbearable, worse than her father's cooking. "I feel like I would rather eat poison berries," she muttered to herself before taking a deep breath and chugging the entire drink. It was worse than she originally thought it was going to be. "Ugg! What is this crap," she gagged, dropping the glass and feeling her vision get a little unsteady.

"It's a potion brewed with natural and earthy ingredients. There might be a couple poisonous plants in there but that should be fine for you," Rasmodius said with a jolly sort of laugh.

"What!" Night snapped fixing him with a glare. She could feel her consciousness start to fail her and she wondered if this wizard had just managed to end her life. She passed out not long after that thought.

(-)(-)(-)(-)

Night opened her eyes with a terrible groan trying to get her mind righted. All she could remember was that the wizard had given her some strange potion thing and she had what she could only call a fever dream. Dancing trees and people and strangeness she couldn't even explain. And now suddenly she was home.

"Someone please tell me all of that was some bad dream," she muttered to herself and suddenly got a reply in the form of a chorus of squeaks and chirps. She glanced over to see what she assumed now were the Junimo looking at her with worry. "You guys aren't helping," she said putting her head in her hands. Some of the chirps were starting to sound like words which was vaguely unsettling and comforting at the same time if that was at all possible.

She held her hand out to one and it happily crawled onto her hand continuing to chirp out. Some sounded happy and others sounded worried. For her? The one on her hand cooed out looking up at her with big worried eyes that spoke volumes of how much they cared for what a stranger she was. "Do you guys like me because of what I am? I guess I wouldn't mind, it's not like you guys can do any harm right? Hey, you might even be able to help me! But in all seriousness this is kinda weird for me. Where did you guys even come from? Were you always here and I just wasn't able to see you before? That kind of makes me feel bad," she said while more climbed onto her.

She put the green Junimo down before stretching out and yawning. Her head was still kind of spinning and she hurt all over. "It's been a long day and that wizard was a freak, so I'm going to sleep," she said lying down while some Junimo crawled across her and others took up positions in the corners of the room. The unsettling feeling she got from them wore off quickly leaving them only as comforting.

Maybe tomorrow would be a good day?


	4. Things Get Stranger

_Spring 4_ _th_ _Year 1_

Night yawned and stretched. The next morning it wasn't fun trying to get up. Her body hurt all over and she was hearing a multitude of strange noises she didn't even notice in the days prior. She was in severe pain for unknown reasons and the Junimo seemed to know. They crowded around her feet crooning in worried noises. She only caught a couple actual words in the whole thing. Which in and of itself was a shock all things considered. She didn't feel like these things would be able to talk, but they seemed to have their own little language of strange words and noises. Every once in a while one of those noises somehow became the same thing as a word in her mind. It was almost like learning a new language. Was she somehow learning a new language? She didn't know.

"Guys, I have to get my work done," she said trying to shake off a couple of the little marshmallow like creatures who clung to her legs and tried to get her to sit back down. "I'm fine, see!" She said flexing a little and making a complete fool of herself. Though she did notice an extremely slight increase in muscle. She didn't feel like any signs of progress would show up for at least a couple of weeks, but then again this was Stardew Valley the land where wizards gave you jungle punch and you can suddenly see marshmallows walking around and vaguely talking. The Junimo were eventually shaken off though some did follow her outside. The jumped around her plants but she didn't really have a problem since they looked like they were doing more good than harm. Maybe these guys could be useful if she was lucky.

Wouldn't that be fun? Having magical imaginary friends who made farming easier. Night sighed putting her head in her hands, it had been barely 4 days and she was already losing her mind! "Maybe I'm just on a lot of drugs right now, god only knows what in the hell was in that juice," she muttered to herself as another series of weird noises came from the foresty area of the farm, the area she had yet to get around to clearing due to lack of energy or a need for better quality tools than the old and rusty iron ones left to her. She'd been hearing things all morning so a new set of strange noises didn't really cause her to bat an eye. At least not until she saw something in the bushes that was a shade of cyan that Junimo do not yet seem to come in. So far she had seen a couple different colors of Junimo. Red, yellow, green, white, and some purple or gray here and there. Of course there was also the lovely dark blue and brown but those seemed to be on the more rare side.

This creature slinking along in the woods however was not under any circumstance mistakable for a Junimo and therefore Night had no idea if it was a threat yet or not. The Junimo didn't seem all too worried or threatened, but she still didn't necessarily trust them either. A strange series of noises and clicks somewhere between a bird and reptile came from whatever it was. She could see what appeared to be scales and wings with purple skin on the inside. The purple and cyan creature continued to slip along on the outskirts of the area uncertain of what to make of the black haired human before it, similarly the human had no clue as to what to make out of the creature until she finally got a good hard look at it.

When fully, or at least mostly, revealed the creature appeared to be a tiny dragon. Night at some point had picked up her axe to defend herself with if things got dangerous but her weapon clattered to the ground along with her jaw. The tiny dragon was of course very small and seemed to have a little difficulty moving as if it wasn't quite used to its body yet, almost like a newborn calf or foal. The connection made her wonder just how old the dragon was and what it was doing on her farm. Despite how obviously clumsy the young creature was it walked with a sort of elegance and grace befitting to the story book creatures known to be able to destroy villages with a blast of powerful fire breath or a sweep of its tail. The dragon slowly lowered its head below that of its shoulders as its read end raise up slightly. That was the body language of an animal that was getting ready to pounce on some kind of prey. Night felt a flash of fear run through her before she realize those sharp, purple reptilian eyes weren't focus on her. The Junimo still paying no attention were playing among the plants and a gray one had wandered fairly close to the dragon.

"Hey!" Night shouted at the top of her lungs easily getting the attention of the dragon and the Junimo if not everything on the farm. "Don't touch them," she scolded the dragon without thinking and it pressed its strange ear like things to its head. The best way to describe them would be cat like but more stretched out and made of leather like skin and feathers. The creature whimpered as if getting a scolding from a parent and lowered itself to the ground tucking its head under its wing. "Oh no. Please don't start pouting. Gosh darn it your making me feel bad!" She huffed as the little creature kept its head firmly under its wings.

Night kneeled down next to it running a hand along its scales. They were hard as gems while somehow still feeling like silk and being warm to the touch like a fire you could hug. "Hey, it's okay. Just don't do it again, alright? They're friends of mine so no hunting the Junimo. You can however hunt all the rats and bird you want," Night said treating the creature almost a bit like a small child that was sulking after being yelled at for getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The dragon certainly seemed intelligent enough not to mention old enough to be reflective of a human child.

"You aren't that old are you?" Night asked as the dragon lifted its head out from under its wing with an excited look on its face at the prospect of hunting rats. At her comment it shook its head and held up a number of talons. Six talons in all. "Six? Six years?" The dragon shook its head no. "Six months?" The dragon nodded its head yes. "Just six months old! Oh sweetheart, where are your parents?" Night asked picking up the dragon child in her arms. The thing was shockingly light, a lot lighter than what she would have expected. The dragon just sort of made a shrugging motion.

"Well, I can't just call you Dragon so do you have any sort of name I can call you by?" She asked to which the dragon shook its head no. "You don't even have a name? I guess I better give you one. How about Cyra? It's close to cyan which is the color you mostly are and it's a really cool name," she offered up. The newly dubbed Cyra gave a chirp of contentment which was a pretty obvious yes.

"Well then, think you can sit tight for a couple hours while I finish up my farm chores? I can't necessarily figure out what you are so after I'm done I'll take you over to the wizard for him to explain things and then we can go from there, alright?" The dragon gave a nod in response. The emotional intelligence as well as morality of the small creature seemed to be that of a small child, but knowledge wise and in regards to understanding Night the dragon seemed to be highly intelligent. It was a curious situation especially for Night who had long thought that civility walked hand in hand with intelligence. Obvious the intelligent and childish dragon made her completely rethink that. Then again she should of already been rethinking that considering she would call her old boss inhumane and uncivilized yet he was obviously 'more intelligent' than she was within the company standard.

At some point Cyra got bored of simply watch Night water crops so she decided she was going to help. She walked over to the pool of water Night had been drawing from and took a couple deep gulps before waddling over to a patch of dry ground. Just like a dragon might breathe fire she breathed out the water on the plants and they began to glisten. They were already starting to look a little healthier than they were moments before. "Wow, nice just Cyra. What else can you do?"

The rest of the morning was for the most part Night working while Cyra did what she could in order to help. The dragon would get some of the plants that Night had yet to water and just simply sitting among the little green sprouts caused them to perk up greatly. "You some kind of nature dragon?" Night asked with a glance at Cyra while she tended to a particularly stubborn Parsnip that didn't seem to want to catch up to the others. Cyra again shrugged not quite sure herself.

"Whelp, everything is thoroughly doused and thanks to you everything looks pretty green. What do you say we go see that wizard now?" Night asked the little scaly beast with a smile. The dragon gave a chirp in response and flew upwards landing on her shoulder. There was a very slight amount of weight and what did rest on her shoulder was more comforting than a burden to carry. The dragon curled its tail around her neck slightly lying down with its head curling around the front of her neck similarly. "Why do I feel like a wizard now? Isn't there just something extra magicy and wizardy about a dragon?" Night said with a small smile and giggle walking towards the south entrance to her farm.

This was where she came face to face with Leah. She had a small greeting with the girl at some point before the wizard event the other day but nothing all too substantial. She froze, wondering how someone else was going to respond to a tiny dragon draped across her neck.

As expected Leah froze in place a look of fear crossing her face. But what she said didn't necessarily connect in Night's mind. "Night… why is there a rat sitting on your shoulder?" Leah asked in a quiet voice like speaking to loudly might cause Cyra, apparently a rat in Leah's eyes, to attack.

"Uuuuhhh, this is Cyra. She's my pet rat. Yeah, a pet rat. She just sort of showed up this morning and she's pretty friendly so I kept her. Don't worry about disease or anything I promise she's nice and clean," Night said happily taking her out of trying to explain the Junimo and Cyra to a stranger. Though never having lied in her life made the explanation a little jumpy and Leah looked at her with caution before finishing the conversation and leaving.

"I hope you're happy Cyra, it's gonna take forever for her not to look at me like a freak," Night sighed.

Cyra huffed and Night snarled back at her. "I know I am one, but that doesn't mean other people have to see me as one!"

The trek to the Wizard's Tower was a lot easier a second time with an actual path and an understanding of where she was heading. Not to mention Cyra demonstrated her ability to also use fire breath and make the way extra clear. Lucky for everyone in the area the small dragon could only produce a small amount of fire and it seemed to magically burn out after a set amount of time limiting the destructive power of it. "Fire times out so it doesn't cause unintentional destruction of nature, nice!" Night muttered as the little dragon looked at her with large praise greedy eyes. So Night gave her a small scratch under the neck.

"Hey Razzmatazz!" Night said slamming the door of the tower open without a care in the world.

"Rassmatazz!" Rasmodius yelled looking pissed. But Night didn't honestly seem to care.

"I found a little dragon. What can you tell me about her?" Night said holding up Cyra to the wizard. Cyra seemed completely fine with Rasmodius until he tried to grab her. Cyra's response was of course a more powerful plume of fire than she had used on the plants. Rasmodius being a powerful wizard was able to protect himself but he didn't escape a small singeing due to the surprise of it.

"Interesting. This is one of the three guardians of the Nature Spirit. Or at least she will be. You see Spirits will often have beings under them known as Guardians and Lesser Sprites. The Junimo are a good example of the Nature Spirit's Lesser Sprites as they aren't all that powerful. More so janitors and to do anything of real substance besides slightly aid plants they would need things to get power from. Items and such. You'll understand once you get into the community center. A Guardian on the other hand is a powerful being with magic that is used to help a Spirit. Most of the time a Guardian is a patron animal of a Spirit. For example a War Spirit might have a lion or a hawk Guardian," Rasmodius said going to some shelves and searching around.

"The Nature Spirit's have often used dragons, wolves, and fairies as their Guardians. This little dragon whatever you decided to name her in the child of the dragon in this Nature Spirit's circle of the three most powerful Guardians. Meaning she's most likely your inheritance," Rasmodius continued taking no pause for Night to be confused.

"Inheritance? So there are three more of these things then, right? A wolf and some kind of fairy? Also why couldn't Leah see Cyra as a dragon?" Night asked.

"Easy, answers will come. Have a little patience… brat," the last comment earned a glare not from Night but Cyra. "What I meant by calling them your inheritance is that the Nature Spirit left these beings to you, her granddaughter. Once upon a time their master was the Nature Spirit but now you are their master, mother, teacher, you are their Nature Spirit in a sense. They will be loyal to you till you pass from this world and possibly still be loyal to you in the next. Nature Spirits considering what they are defy many of the rule typical beings must follow after all," Rasmodius said.

"Like," Night prompted trying to get as many answers as possible.

"The one important to you right now is one simple fact. A spirit can have children with a human, as many as they please. This will result in a sense a Demi Spirit. Powerful beings who don't stand on the same grounds as the nearly god like spirits who in a sense are the various aspects of Yoba, Nature Spirits defy this. The blood of a Nature Spirit shifts, ever changing and often upon the death of a Nature Spirit one of their children will take up the mantle. While your mother held few aspects of a typical Nature Spirit your appear to any educated in higher degree magics to be a Nature Spirit and will appear as such to other Spirits or Demi Spirits. This puts you in a position of both power and peril. Which is why your grandmother has gifted the children of her three most powerful Guardians to you. I'm sure in time you will discover the other two," Rasmodius said his long lecture in magic slowly starting to drain on Night.

"Wait, does that mean I gotta take care of this!" The yelped pointing as the little dragon that had curled up around her feet. "What does she even eat? Livestock! She tried to eat the Junimo," Night muttered shuddering at the incident that morning.

Rasmodius just laughed. "Different dragons eat different things and grow to different sizes based off these diets. Sadly your new pet isn't a veggie eating dragon, though it would have made things easier meaning she would stay at this size and be less costly for a farmer to feet. But luckily she isn't a meat eater either, which have massive diets and grow to be immense sizes. This little one is a gem eater, meaning she'll most likely never get bigger than a horse," Rasmodius said holding out a ruby to the sleeping dragon. She snatched it instantly and sunk her teeth into it. Night cringed at the sound of cracking thinking the small dragon had just broken her teeth, but all she saw was ruby dust coming from the dragons mouth as Cyra devoured her new treat.

"Okay, back to the rat thing. Also why can't Cyra speak?" Night said steering the conversation the direction she wanted it to go instead of listening to the wizard bather on for a couple more hours.

"Pushy much? Well, most normal people can't comprehend magical creatures. The only creatures that can be seen by anyone is a monster because the locations they live in have a high enough magical concentration for normal humans to draw off it. As for things like spirits or monsters who live outside of these magically concentrated areas they will appear as a kind of animal or not even appear at all such as Cyra's rat like appearance or the inability for people to see the Junimo. Cyra can just as easily become invisible and the Junimo can look likes rats or squirrels if they so desired. Cyra can't speak because as you've figure out she's just a baby. Though dragons are extremely intelligent. I'm sure she'll be able to start picking up the basics of human speech within a couple of days if you talk to her constantly and bring her into town while invisible. Though I don't think bringing a rat to town is a good idea," he glanced at Cyra and the dragon made a sound something akin to a groan.

"Well, I think I'm done. I can't take anymore wizardy magicy mumbo jumbo. Bye bye Razzmatazz," she said. It was quickly becoming obvious to a very annoyed wizard that she wasn't going to change her name for Rasmodius any time soon.

"Before you go I have one last thing to tell you. As you get more powerful your crops will grow better but also more powerful monsters will come for your life along with Spirits. As long as people can't see them none of the townspeople will be put into danger. But there might come a day where your influence grows so great that the people around you can see magical creatures and monsters. Just be careful young Nightshade. The future is full of both darkness and light and it is your job to decide what direction this town is pushed. Never lose faith in the people who live here or yourself. Always find a way to overcome because that is what Nature Spirits do best," Rasmodius said attaching a weak fare well to the end.

Night dragged her feet home thinking over what she had recently discovered. Just like on her way to the wizard she once again found herself bumping into Leah.

"Did you plan this?" Leah asked playfully with a small laugh. Night laughed along with her.

"Hey, what'cha got there?" Night asked seeing something held in Leah's hand. It was a small wooden carving and upon closer inspection it was one of a Junimo!

"Oh, this? This is a Junimo carving. You know, one of those little spirits that are said to follow around really great farmers? I could of sword I saw one once upon a time when I first came here, but I never saw it again… Hey, where did that rat go?" Leah asked looking right at Night's shoulder where Cyra was currently sat.

"Oh, I let her go. She might come back and might now. Either way she is a rat so she can do as she pleases," Night said with a shrug figuring the dragon had opted invisibility over being called a rat again. Rasmodius had sort of been using it in a really insulting way.

"You know what, you should take this. Maybe a great farmer like you will actually be able to attract some Junimo one day and I'll be able to carve another," Leah said handing the small wooden carving to Night.

"Thank you!" Night said with a brilliant smile that could rival every start of the night sky. "I'll make sure to treasure it forever," she said acting almost like an adorable little kid.

Leah laughed smiling back. "So sweet and innocent, never lose that smile and promise me you'll never waste your time on bad people," Leah said.

"I promise," Night said before dashing off to her farm with her new carving. Of course the first thing she did when she got home was show the Junimo. "Look guys, it's you," she said as the Junimo jumped around it playing with the wooden figure of one of them.

Night flopped down onto her bed with a sigh. Tommorow was going to be Friday which meant she would be staying out late. She had already promised Abigail that she would show. Abigail even said she was gonna figure out how to get Sebastian to act friendly for the night. Abigail had seemed pretty happy when Night agreed to hang out with them on Friday's. Of course she was going to spend a little bit of time to meet everyone else in town as well as greet a couple people she hadn't seen often. She still had quite a few people on her list she hadn't met yet and Friday at the Saloon seemed to be the perfect time.

"I wonder what tomorrow will bring," Night muttered closing her eyes as Cyra curled up on her chest. "G'night Cyra," she said.


	5. Drinks and Bets

_Spring 5_ _th_ _Year 1_

Night stretched as the dragon fell to the ground with a thump. Cyra looked up at her, making a strange growl with obvious distain for the rude awakening. "Sorry Cy, I'm gonna have to get used to you. Especially when you weigh literally nothing," Night said as she picked up the dragon who curled into her master's arms in an attempt to keep sleeping. But the Junimo came out from their places, making chirps and squeaks of good morning. Cyra growled looking at one red Junimo who seemed to act a bit like a leader. The Red Leader squeaked back at Cyra in response. He seemed to be the least easy to push around out of the Junimo and wasn't yet very fond of Cyra due to their first meeting being one where Cyra was stalking one of the Junimo like prey.

Cyra grudgingly crawled out of Night's arms and onto her shoulders still looking tired. "You get used to it," Night tried to offer up but the dragon flicked her head away and ignored Night. "Oh come on Cyra," Night huffed at the pissy little beast and Cyra finally turned back towards Night. But she didn't dare to look at a single Junimo. "You aren't going to be getting along with Red Leader anytime soon, are you? That's fine I guess as long as you two don't fight," she said also directing the comment at the red Junimo who gave a click of confirmation.

Night yawned putting Cyra down in order to stretch and shake out her body. She wanted to go for a quick run on the farm, but she needed to honestly save all her extra energy for farming and clearing out what she could so instead she went ahead with morning routine. Brush teeth, brush hair, showers were usually reserved for after work and she'd never been a morning shower kind of person, and finally cook breakfast. Unfortunately she didn't really have much to cook so she ended up just munching on some snacks and things she was able to get from Pierre the other day. She knew Joja had food, but it would take the world to end for Night to drag herself into Joja.

"Alright guys, today is harvest day for the Parsnips which means if Cyra could water things while I harvest that would be great. Red Leader, just keep an eye on the Junimo and make sure no one gets underfoot. If you can help Cyra with the plants though, that would be great. I'm going to be heading out to the saloon tonight to hang out with some friends but I promise I'll bring everyone something tasty, even you Cyra," Night said giving her daily talk to her new friends. Every day that talk seemed to get a little longer, but that was most likely thanks to the fact she had more people to give it to. In the beginning she had just been talking over the day with herself, now she had an army of marshmallow creatures and a dragon.

"Am I insane?" She asked one of the Junimo. The green Junimo shrugged. "Oh come on, Granny Smith, give me a good answer," she said. The Junimo seemed a little shocked by its new name but Granny Smith didn't seem phased for long as it finally shook its head. "No? You sure? Of course you would tell me that if I was insane," she said with a small laugh as the Junimo began to slightly panic over her words.

So the little(actually very big) group went out to the fields and began to work. "I think I could sell these to Pierre on my way into town to get more seeds if only my backpack was bigger…" Night said looking at the shotty thing. It was an old leather backpack in camo colors that had been with her since she was a child. "I could always put it in the shipping bin like Lewis said but I wanted to buy more seeds today and have cash on hand tonight," she muttered quietly.

A strange force materialize behind her and the girl instantly booked it. "Who, what, where, when, why!" She barked, jumping behind a tree and holding her hoe similar to a sword.

"Interesting, most highly trained mages little lone uncultured wildlings notice me do that," the wizard said with a look of interest on his face. "Anyway since it seems you have formed an extremely negative opinion of me I have brought you a gift to remedy that situation! I call it the bag of holding!" The wizard said holding out to her what looked like a normal backpack. "It can only hold 36 kinds of items at a time, but, it can hold 999 of whatever 36 items are inside. To demonstrate my point I left you a gift you might find most useful when dealing with the unpleasant gem eating beast," Rasmodius said.

To Night's upmost shock and delight she found what looked to be endless amounts of her favorite blue gemstones. "Sapphires! Cyra, catch," Night said tossing one of the blue gemstones to the dragon. Cyra happily caught it and began to chow down.

"Now when Cyra is older she's only going to need about 10 to 20 gemstones in a week or two in order to be good. But as a baby in order for her to grow properly into her magic you have to feed her a lot. Each gemstone has different effect on her and helps her grow stronger. The best for you to feed her are emeralds, sapphires, and amethyst, though stuffing her full of anything else you find won't be a problem, since while those three will help with her earth and water, magic ruby and topaz or some quartz will help her learn better fire magic and there are other things to help her fly better," the wizard said. "When you start to build chests on your farm I'll come around sometime and enchant them for you with the same thing as your bags. If you know what's best you'll build a chest for gemstones as soon as possible. I left 999 sapphires so you have a good stock pile until you get into the mines, but depending on how long you dawdle you'll run out sooner than you expect."

And with that lecture done and over with the wizard snapped his fingers and left a bunch of smoke for Night and the Junimo to cough on. Cyra seemed unfazed. By the time the smoke cleared the wizard was gone. "Didn't even give me a chance to speak, aye Razzmatazz?" That's when a thought caught her attention. "This town has mines? Oh right, he was talking about that the other day. Aren't they infested with monsters though? …He expects me to go down into monster infested mines?" Night asked looking at Cyra who nodded almost feverishly. "And you do too… greaaaat," Night said with a sigh.

She put her backpack to good use for the rest of the morning, pulling of nice big Parsnips that would hopefully fetch a good price. "How are you guys doing?" She asked as she glanced at the dragon and Junimos. Cyra was currently being ridden by Red Leader who seemed to be trying to make some kind of point to Cyra. Night couldn't help but laugh as Cyra simply went about her chores with an almost disgusted expression. Night was done with the parsnips so she went over to help water more things. The plants she watered didn't have an immediate effect like Cyra did, but the plants Night had watered the day before were obviously a lot healthier than the ones Cyra watered. Not that Cyra's were unhealthy, hers just looked like that could survive world war three. "Is this because of me?" Night asked pointing towards the thriving plants. Cyra nodded and the Junimo made a collective cheer like noise.

Night laughed at them slightly watching Cyra work. Night paid a little extra attention to Cyra's plants so everything would grow at an even rate. "So, what do you guys think I should buy? Or should I save since I spent all my money on other things already," Night asked. Obviously no one was going to tell her anything but everyone seemed to try giving out chirps and squeaks and calls of all kinds. "Save? Save it is," Night said and everyone seemed happy.

"Alright Cy. You need to learn English so you're coming with me," Night said picking of the dragon and gently brushing the Junimo off before placing Cyra on her shoulder. Night's right shoulder seemed to be the dragons favorite place to perch, even though it was more like the entire upper half of her body with how the dragon sprawled out across her shoulders wrapping her tail around the back of Night's neck and her own neck around the front. "Dragon necklace," was the only comment Night managed before realizing it was already 10 in the morning and she had to get moving.

A quick jog got her to town within half an hour and she ran to Pierre's. "Hey Pierre! Got my first harvest for ya," she said dumping all her parsnips onto the counter. She had taken the parsnips out of her bag and put them into her arms to make it look at least slightly more normal. There was an insane amount of giant parsnips and Cyra had to jump off of Night's shoulder before she got crushed.

"Goodness!" Pierre gasped inspecting the parsnips. "These are fairly high quality. Got a couple of silver and gold star quality. You sure that you're an amateur? Oh right, here. This is how much I'm willing to pay you," Pierre said handing a small sack to Night.

"Are you sure? This seems like too much," Night said.

"Not at all. I'll be fetching even more when I sell these. You might actually want to talk to Gus about selling to him to next time you go to the Saloon. Gus cooks everything himself. Usually him and I have to import crops from far away farmers and he even sometimes has to buy from Joja or I to make ends meet. If you can keep this up, by the time you clear out that whole farm you'll be one of the most important people in town. After all money that stays in Pelican Town is better than money that goes with Joja and never comes back," Pierre said sneering a bit at the mention of Joja.

Night nodded happily. "Sire, I will do everything in my power to single handedly produce enough crops for the entire town at a cheap enough price that together we drive Joja out of Pelican Town with their tail between their legs!" Night purred viciously as a devilish smile crossed her face. Pierre whole heartedly returned the smile and the two burst into goofy laughter.

"Anyway, I'm gonna be getting some new seeds next harvest since I wanna save enough money to stop eating seeds from the trees I cut down," she said with a smaller but happier smile. Pierre nodded understandingly and told her about how he was going to be selling strawberry seeds next festival.

"If you buy them this year you can plant them next year at the start of spring and make a much better profit. But that will make it harder to buy summer crops or anything in general unless you can find and somehow cultivate wild seeds," Pierre said.

"Wild seeds?" Night asked with a tilt of her head.

"Right, wild seed. Sometimes when you're cutting grass you can find seeds. These seeds can be planted and you'll get a random item that can either be foraged or grown. Meaning if you were able to cultivate a lot of wild seeds you might get some more parsnips or something else. A lot of other people call them mixed seeds but honestly they're more like wild seeds," Pierre said.

"I'll keep that in mind," Night said. The two talked for a while longer about what would be in season and what would be best to grow during summer and fall. It was already seven by the time they were finishing. "I really need to get going. I was gonna head to the Saloon tonight since its Friday," Night said with a sheepish smile.

Pierre just nodded. "Have fun. Don't let Abigail convince you to do anything stupid. Don't let her do anything stupid either," Pierre said teasing a small laugh from both Night and Cyra who had been watching the entire conversation with great interest.

Night was about to open the door when she took a step back. Abigail instead swung the door open and nearly slammed into Night. "Oh! Hi again," she said with a laugh.

"I think this door is trying to get us to kill each other," Night said glad she hadn't opened the door on Abigail. "Hey, I was just about to head out to the Saloon. You wanna walk there together?" Night asked with her cheesiest and most charming smile she could muster. Of course she was just playing around, but if Abigail was actually gonna be a friend of hers Abigail had to understand Night's humor.

Luckily the girl did and she laughed. "Sure thing Casanova. Just don't try that on anyone else. You might get into something you didn't intend," Abigail shot back. "Just give me a sec; I've got to grab some thing."

Pierre watched the whole exchange while Abigail went to her room and Night stood by the door. "You two already seem to be pretty good friends. That's good. Abigail could use someone like you," Pierre said with a small sigh.

"Someone like me?" Night asked with a tilt of her head.

"Someone practical," Pierre offered glancing the direction Abigail had gone. "Honestly I really don't mind that she wants to be an adventurer. If that's who she wants to be and she does it safely then I'd be proud of her for following her dreams. But she doesn't know how to fight yet and she's too scared to go to the guild. She doesn't have a single practical skill in order to take care of herself when she moves away, she can't cook or clean or anything and that's why I try to get her to help Caroline and myself around the house. I don't want her running off on her own till she actually knows how to care for herself, but she doesn't want to learn. Plus, I'm scared of losing her," Pierre said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I can see that. Abigail is nineteen, right? Most normal nineteen year olds don't know how to do that kind of stuff. That's why they either stay at home or fail out in the real world. The only reason I can take care of myself is because Mirrorwood's kick out the kids at 16. Very illegal but shockingly effective. After all, me only being a couple months past 18 should be enough proof of that," Night said with a sigh. "I'll tell you what Pierre. You keep her out of the mines till she learns to take care of herself and I'll do what I can to teach her on the farm. She seems to like coming out to help me and she might be more welcoming of learning from a friend than her parents," Night offered.

"Nightshade, that's a brilliant idea! Would you really?" Pierre asked with a giant smile.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. You just keep her away from fighting for the time being and I'll do my best to teach her basic skills in regards to taking care of herself," Night said. Pierre and her shook on the idea and Night went back to standing next to the door right before Abigail came out. "Ready to go?" Night asked and Abigail nodded.

"You and my dad talk about anything cool?" Abigail asked.

"Nah, nothing really," Night said as the two walked out the door. She didn't intend to let Abigail know about the little deal. It would be better for Abigail if she learned how to be capable and got to join the guild as a sort of reward without ever knowing Night had a hand in it. That was the way Night helped her friends. Abigail already seemed capable enough from what Night had seen, at least when it came to physical labor. But she had no clue what to expect in regard to cleaning and cooking. The focus should most likely be cooking since almost everyone could learn how to clean pretty easy.

"Hey Night?" Abigail asked.

"What's up Abigail?" Night asked with a tilt of her head.

"You know you can call me Abby right, most of my friends do. Unless you don't actually want to be friends or anything, I guess it would be fine if we're just acquaintance but I kind of figured we were friends," Abigail said instantly becoming an embarrassed mess.

"Of course we're friends, Abby," Night said with a small laugh making sure to use the new nickname. Abigail blushed furiously at this and kept her head down saying nothing else until the pair got to the Saloon. Sebastian and Sam were already there, engaged in a vicious battle of pool. One can say it was close as many times as they wanted, but that wouldn't change the fact anyone could see Sebastian dominating Sam.

"Hey nerds!" Night called flashing a bright smile and waving to the two while she stood next to the counter waiting on Gus. Sam waved brightly while Sebastian just held up a hand and went back to owning Sam.

"What'll it be new girl," Gus asked with a smile.

"Just a burger or something," Night said smiling back.

"Nothing to drink?"

"Nah, I don't do alcohol. Old story, but no drinks for me. I'll just help take everyone home when they're drunk out of their minds," she said with a tiny giggle.

Before she could go over to Abigail and the others someone caught her eye walking in. He had purple hair and a five o'clock shadow. He was dressed in a ratty blue hoody and a green shirt that wasn't quite a dress shirt but almost. He slumped down in a corner of the bar demanding a beer. Night huffed watching him down his new beer in the blink of an eye.

"Hey Gus," Night said handing enough gold to him, "give him another on me."

The new man came over to Night a couple moments later while she was simply waiting for her food. "Why?" He snarled giving her a cautious look.

"Because I know your kind. The kind that works at Joja. I was one once upon a time, that's why I came here. Or at least I almost was. You feel like there isn't any way out like you're trying to climb out of the void itself and there isn't anything to grab onto. You can't get a grasp on the one thread of life you continue to dangle by. It's a sad and horrible existence that no one should have to suffer, and it's for the most part the fault of Joja. So friend, why not bond over a mutual hatred of the wretched place?" She said handing him one more drink. She started to walk away before the new man spoke up once more.

"That name's Shane," he said curtly but obviously already starting to warm up to the new girl. Night smiled and held up a pretend drink to toast him.

"To a new friendship based off mutual hate! See ya around Shane," she said walking away with her now served food to join her friends.

"What took you so long?" Abigail asked seemed a little bored. Sebastian was still owning Sam who was quickly getting drunker by the second. The drunken Sam seemed to be the only thing entertaining Abigail as Night saw a game over screen on the arcade game.

"Just meeting some new people. What's going on?" Night asked.

"The usual. I'm failing at this game and Sam and Sebastian are playing a game where the loser has to drink. Sam of course hasn't ever been able to beat Sebastian so he gets the drunkest out of everyone," Abigail said taking a swig of her own drink. Night sat down to eat and earned a curious glance from the three. "Not drinking?"

Night shook her head. "It's a long story but I don't usually drink."

The night progressed with everyone except Night getting drunk out of their minds. "Come on Night, drink you stick in the mud!" Sam howled laughing like a maniac. Abigail was crying in the corner and Sebastian kept yelling at Sam to shut the hell up.

"What a wide variety of drunk… Alright, I'll make a deal with you. If I lose at Journey of the Prairie King I'll drink. But if I win then you have to kiss Sebastian," Night said grinning viciously. The snake like smile didn't faze Sam who was long past logic and he shook on the deal.

"Oh wait! If it freezes again we tale a middle ground and you buy me a drink," Sam said many of the words slurred and barely words. But Night was able to understand she agreed.

"Alright game, meet game queen," Night muttered standing before the arcade machine with a look of determination. She put in a quarter and quickly her hands started to fly across the controls. She was able to take down level after level by focusing her upgrade on her gun and her speed. Night had always played speedy and hard hitting characters or sneaky assassins when she was given the choice. It wasn't that she was bad at tanks, she was better than a lot of people still, but she preferred not to take hits. Enemies fell one after another and soon bosses started to join the list of fallen foes.

"Yes!" Night cheered as she came to the last boss. Her entire body was shaking except for her hands which remained steady. She hunched over the machine as her character shot at the boss and quickly dogged hits with its incredible speed.

Abigail and Sebastian were both pulled from their drunk fits in order to watch what they both considered to be miracles. Even Gus in all his years had never seen someone beat the old game so he too came over to see what was going on.

"You cheating or something!" Sam accused but Night just shook her head as the final boss fell at her mighty gamer hands.

"Stardew Valley is behind on both gaming advancements and knowledge," Night said, "I'm willing to bet none of you have never heard of Dark Souls. But honestly I can say even after playing this Dark Souls is the hardest game I will ever touch in my entire life. I was able to beat it once and I couldn't do crap to the new game, this is nothing compared to that."

Sam gulped and glanced at Sebastian and then Night as if to ask if he really had to. Night nodded grinning like a beast that had found easy prey.

Unfortunately her fun was quickly spoiled. "Alright, closing time. Your rides are here," Gus said referring to Robin who usually brought her truck in order to bring people home as well as Marnie who did something similar. Jodi showed up to take Sam home.

"You're off the hook this time," Night said with an angry expression. "But one day you gotta pay up this deal."

Night happily took a ride home from Marnie when offered. She had a pleasant chat with Shane who was surprising collected for having drunk the most out of the entire damn town. She took her leave when Marnie got to her ranch. She could walk the rest of the way home. "Are you sure dear? It could be dangerous at night," she said.

"You're right, I am dangerous," Night said making a joke out of the situation. "But in all reality I'm gonna be fine. I've got ways of protecting myself." She didn't let Marnie see the glance she gave to Cyra who was currently walking next to Night happily enjoying the cool air and bugs to play with.

Marnie eventually let her go on her own and she made the short walk back to the cabin. The second she walked through the door the Junimo came forward to greet her happily cooing. Cyra made a crooning noise ad Night sat down on her bed and place the little dragon in her lap.

"That was fun, wasn't it Cyra?" Night asked. Even though Cyra didn't really need to eat anything other than gemstones she had started to steal small amounts of food from people as they got more and more drunk. The only person she didn't steal anything from was Night, who instead she begged for. "Know English yet?" Night asked jokingly.

"Eeengrish," the dragon said on a very animalistic matter making the e sound more like cooing noises. But the grish part was actually pretty good despite the mispronunciation.

"Well done," Night praised pulling a couple sapphires out of her back pack for Cyra to munch. The dragon took them all and crawled under the bed. The underside of Night's bed was like a cave; she shouldn't be surprised a dragon would want to live there.

"Goodnight Cyra," Night said with a sigh closing her eyes.


	6. Into the Dark

_Spring 9_ _th_ _Year 1_

The week had passed without incident and now it was officially the next week, Tuesday to be specific. Night had been dedicating most of her time to farming but her tools were starting to wear. "I need better tools, but I don't have the money to pay for the metal," Night said pacing back and forth while Cyra gnawed on a sapphire trying to make it last. "I'm getting low on gemstones already too," she muttered a little quieter. Cyra still however perked slightly at this comment.

"Mine," she chirped in a voice that was reminiscent of a child. She had been getting better at speaking human words; her voice was slowly going from draconic to that of a human. This at least made things a little easier.

"But isn't that, you know, dangerous?" Night asked looking at the dragon with cautious eyes.

"Help," the little dragon cheered jumping to her feet and breathing a small plume of smoke in order to cement her point.

"You sure this is a good idea? I mean, the idea of fighting monster scares me and I don't even have a weapon yet," Night said casting her eyes downwards. She wasn't as helpless as she was letting herself believe. Heck, her parents were members of the adventurer's guild where she grew up. She was taught to fight at a young age and the body doesn't forget. But there was still the problem of not having a weapon, and she never liked fighting on her own. "I guess I always have my pickaxe if things go badly, I'll just have to use it. Meaning I should maybe upgrade it first? That's another good point, what tools do I even want to focus on. I know it's gonna take a while for Clint to finish upgrading them and I still have to smelt the ore myself and-" Cyra cut off Night with a warble and a glare to which Night promptly closed her mother and sighed.

"Fine, let's go," Night said picking up her pickaxe. She didn't really need her other tools and they took up room in her backpack. Even with the wizardy magic every slot was precious. Cyra trotted alongside her as the pair took the north path. She had discovered it when she needed to get to Robin the other day to ask about a silo. It was the much quicker way. All Night knew about the mine was that it was across a bridge close to Robin's house and that a rock blocking it had been removed recently.

The mine was a daunting thing. A cold dark hole that she didn't want to go into. "Cyra. I can't do this without a weapon," Night said shivering slightly as a cold breeze passed by going into the mine almost like it was trying to suck her in. Cyra just shook her head and batted a paw continuing her attempts to get Night into the mine.

"No," Night snapped a lot more firm this time. "That's dangerous and stupid. I'm going to see if the Adventurer's Guild is still around here and if they'll lend me a weapon," Night told the dragon who flinched slightly but nodded her head in understanding and a little bit of shame. Just as Night predicted the Adventurer's Guild building was still around if a little run down. "Hello?" she asked opening the door and walking in slightly.

"Who are you? Customer? Sorry, but we don't have any adventurers left. When Stardew Valley started going downhill most left and packed up for a bigger guild with better opportunities. As the guild leader I'm all that's left," a man behind the counter said. He wore an eyepatch and his clothing definitely screamed adventurer. She noticed however his hair was very gray and this man must be pretty old.

"Actually I was wondering if you could lend me a sword. I need to get down to the mines in order to get better ore for better tools. It's a little dangerous getting it myself but I'm not a stranger to a sword and I don't currently have the money to waste on buying the ore," Night explained stepping inside and looking around. The man behind the counter sized her up.

"You're Holly's kid ain't ya? I'll give ye a sword for free, if you join the guild," the man said still scrutinizing Night up and down.

"Really? I would love to! But wait, don't most members have to do a task to prove themselves," Night asked. She knew that the Adventurer's Guild back home handed out pretty hefty first trials. Most of which gave her some problems. Then again it was bound to be harsh when her mother was the Guild Master in her home town. Both of her parents had been born to fight which is why they made a perfect team. After traveling as much as they wanted they settled down in a town with a guild to do jobs for and somehow along the way her mother became the Guild Master of that branch. Of course her parents still had their moments where they would disappear for weeks at a time and just show up again later.

"Course. Your task will be to take this sword, get down to level five o' the mines and kill let's say 10 slimes along the way. Do that and come back, then I'll make you an official member o' the Stardew Valley Adventurer's Guild," the man said. "Oh right, before I forget. The name's Marlow."

"A pleasure to meet you Marlow," Night said taking the sword that was handed to her and taking her leave. She already had the basics of sword fighting from what her mother and father had taught her along with a couple other weapons. If she found a dagger or something it might be good to bring it along as a sub weapon in case she lost or broke her sword. If there was one thing Night's mother pounded into her head when dealing with an enemy it was always have a plan B… and C, D, E, F, G, so and so for etcetera.

"Well Cyra, happy now," Night said walking into the entrance of the mine while the tiny dragon walked along at her feet.

"Haaapeee," Cyra cooed still working on her English.

"Hey Cyra, why do you even understand me? I mean you are a baby dragon. Shouldn't you, you know speak dragon or something. Or at the very least not understand me, especially considering you can't speak or write yet," Night asked the tiny dragon. Cyra currently incapable of giving any reasonable answer just gave a huff. Almost like she was saying she would explain it later. "Fine," Night said forgetting about her question for the time being. The two had more important things to do. One of those was finding some copper to make better tools as well as some gems for Cyra to eat.

The place didn't seem to threatening when one first walked in. There was a broken down mine cart to the left, a large hard to break looking rock to the right, and an elevator as well as a ladder right in front of her. "Let's see," she muttered walking past the ladder down and towards the elevator. "Wow, it looks like the same kind of magic that the mine back home had. Every five levels a person got down the elevator would somehow mark them. Only someone who actually got to those lower floors could use it, or if they were accompanying someone who could. However if you go with someone who could it wouldn't actually register unless you went down another five layers and it would only recognize those layers. It's kinda strange and confusing, hu?" Night said with a small giggle and a smile while Cyra just stared at her completely baffled.

"Long story short, we're taking the ladder," Night said rolling her eyes. Her smile however remained as she went over to the ladder and started to climb down it. Cyra followed not long after. The clawed being had a little more trouble with the ladder than Night but she had five talons on her front paws, one was rather thumb like, so she was able to make it down without too much difficulty.

"Wow, it's kinda dark down here huh?" Night said looking around at the dimly lit rooms. There were still torches on the walls from long past expeditions. "I wonder how these are still burning. Oh wow, I think they're magic," Night said inspecting the torches as well as a good number of glowing stone and lanterns on the roof. "Who do you think made these? Rasmodius? I know my mother used to come down here when she was a kid. I don't think it's too far of a stretch to say she might have explored with Rasmodius once or twice. Robin and Caroline seemed to know her pretty well with the way they talked when I first came here. I should ask one of them. Heck, they might have even come down here once or twice with her!"

After breaking up a couple of rocks Night was able to find the ladder to the next layer. The sense of danger hit her long before she could actually see any enemies, and frankly it was a little intoxicating. As a child there was nothing she loved more than sneaking into the mines with a couple of her friends and maybe Marigold and trying to see how far they could get before a monster chased them out. With a weapon in her hands the situation felt a lot more comfortable then when she was fighting against Cyra before. They were actually pretty careful, with someone always being close to the ladder up and no one ever being alone. The ladder was something magical as well. Old Darvish magic combined with the blessing of certain spirits allowed anyone who went up the ladder to instantly get to the first floor no matter how deep in they were. Of course this meant no back tracking but that was why the elevator was put into place.

Then she had to leave home and there wasn't any time left for adventure. "I really shouldn't feel so at home down here. Not when it's a different mine and I don't know the rules. But I do, I really feel like Stardew Valley just became completely and totally home now," Night said glancing around. Her pupils had become dilated as they danced around the rooms and it was becoming much easier to see in the dim light. She would need to remember not to be as reckless as fighter as when she had backup. Cyra growled and Night's attention was instantly diverted to something rolling down the halls.

Lucky for her it was just a little green slime. Nothing to be underestimated. Obviously a green slime was a beginner monster, but Night was out of practice and could use a little wake up. She wasn't going to be an idiot about this. She was going to take things slow and remember how to fight.

She took cautious steps forwards drawing her new sword and holding it in a defensive block. Slimes were known to lung at their prey. They absorbed smaller creatures like rats or easy to get minerals like quartz. Her mother had even told her a story once that she had faced a king slime full of quartz. The things a slime absorbed made them more powerful, be it attack or defense. Sometimes they even got special powers from certain items. At only 12-years-old her mother had to turn tail and get a real adventurer to deal with it.

As predicted the slime lunged for her and slammed against her waiting sword. While the slime was knocked back to the ground and trying to lung again Night rushed forward slashing downward with all her might. The slime split in two taking a critical hit to its core area and disappearing in a poof of smoke. Most monsters disappeared when they were defeated to the best of Night's knowledge. Going back to the spirit realm or something. She knew there were some "monsters" this rule didn't apply to such as the Shadow People. Shadow People soaked back into the shadows and reformed at a later date unless you used a weapon enchanted with light or fire magic, or actually used one of those two magics.

"Dealing with Shadow People is not going to be fun," Night muttered to herself since she had neither of those two things and it was unlikely to find either until she was in the depths of the dungeon. "Maybe I should call my mom tonight and ask her about this place. I heard she actually made it to the bottom; she should have some good insight. What do you think Cyra?" Night asked taking a glance at the dragon only to find her peacefully snoozing away.

"Glad to know you have my back," Night said tapping the dragon with her boot. In response Cyra gave Night the stink eye while she stood back up. She spread her wings beating the air and landed on Night's shoulder. Most likely to finish her nap. "Just make sure to burn anything insectoid okay? I don't like bugs."

The pair continued along without finding another slime on that layer. Unfortunately they didn't find any copper either. Level three however they did find useful for hunting both. "I'll just take care of those two there and that looks to be a vein of copper," Night said with a cheery smile. Night dispatched the slimes easy enough though one was able to land a hit on her. "I hate slime so much," she said now looking at her slime covered pant leg. She had gotten some more clothes since coming to town but this was her last clean pair of pants and she didn't have time to do laundry when she got home. "Guess I'm wearing a skirt tomorrow," she grumbled her voice dripping with disdain. She didn't necessarily like wearing skirts or dresses because she never thought of herself as pretty enough to wear something like that. She only owned some because of Marigold.

"I'll worry about it later, what's that noise?" She asked Cyra hearing a strange buzzing noise. It made her want to cringe. "It's so loud!"

Cyra dug her claws into Night's shoulder as smoke started to pour from her nose. Night didn't necessarily mind the claws, they hurt less than one might imagine. With Cyra's size they were much more like that of a cat. But the smoke was worrying. That meant that Cyra perceived something in the area as a threat. That's when a kind of large insect came down the tunnel on a direct path with Night. Night drew her sword but before the creature got close Cyra belched a large spray of flames, larger than Night had ever seen.

"Night job Cyra," Night praised as the dragon curled its head close to the crook of her neck making a soft cooing noise. "Were you trying to protect me because I said I hated bugs?" Night asked and Cyra gave something reminiscent of a nod. Night kicked the burnt carcass out of the way and was able to get down to layer four. Two more slimes and she was down to layer five. "I think that's about it. We got enough copper to forge at Clint's, we can get enough tomorrow to start making an actual forge."

Night left the mine and went to Marlow. "Nice job pup," he said inspecting the monster bits she had gotten from her various kills. "Alright then. You got what you needed. Scat," he said turning back to polish the blades on the wall. They looked powerful, and one Night knew at the center of her very being had been a sword that had belonged to her mother.

"Alright, see you in a couple of days~" She said with a little wave.

"You're coming back?" Marlow asked with a curious glance.

"Of course," Night said, "you said this place needed new life. You don't have any more members so that's at least what I took it as. So I'll join and try to see what I can do in order to get more people to join too!"

A smile pulled on the corners of Marlow's mouth but he shook his head with a sigh in order to banish them. "Do as you will pup. Just don't come crying to me if you get hurt or lose something. I'll send out a search party if you go missing for a day or more," he told her looking away and back towards the sword in order to hide his growing smile.

Night could hear the smile in his voice; she wasn't that easy to fool. But she pretended not to and didn't bring it up. "Bye old man!" She shouted taking her leave.


End file.
